The following is my review of my C63S Edition 1 and in particular a comparison with the 2015 M4 that I traded-in 3 weeks ago for the C63. I will also make a few comments regarding the differences between the C63S and my wife’s 2012 C63 sedan which has the P31 Development Package (increased horsepower, forged internals, etc.) and the factory LSD. I have separated this review into two sections, Utility and Performance. My comments regarding performance are quite subjective as I have not done instrumented testing on any of these cars and I was not able to do side-by-side comparisons of the M4 and C63S as I owned them serially.

Before I get to my review, here is a list of the options on the BMW (you should already know the options on the C63S as all US Edition 1 cars have the same equipment). The C63S is Iridium Silver.

My M4 had the Executive Package that included backup camera, nav, heads up display, keyless entry and start, and basic leather (seats, but not dash). It also had the DSC 7 speed sequential transmission, the 19” wheels, Harmon Kardon audio, the Lighting Package, motorized rear sun shade, and adaptive suspension. The MSRP was about $78K. The car did not have a sun roof and instead had the carbon fiber roof.

Utility
In this section I will cover things like seats, interior comfort, navigation and entertainment systems and general things that a driver would use on a nearly daily basis.

HVAC: My M4 was black and got extremely hot in the sunny summer months here in North Carolina. The AC struggled to keep the car comfortable any time the outside temperature was in the high 80s or above. I did not have BMW investigate to see if there was a problem, although I probably should have. I did get the windows tinted and that helped with the issue, but did not solve it entirely. I opted for the window tint as the windows in the car were all fairly raked (not close to vertical) and the heat of the sun really hit me from many angles. By comparison, the AC in the C63 is much stronger and has no trouble even when temperatures have been as high as 98*. In addition, the C63S has the ability to set the temperature for both driver and passenger simultaneously while giving the option to change them independently. This is something the W204 C63 lacked and even the 2015 M4 did not have this capability. I always found this annoying given that my econobox Ford C-Max has this capability.

Passenger space: While not a fair comparison, the C63S has much more rear seat passenger room, both leg room and head room versus the M4. It also has more space than the M3. Initially I did not think this was an issue, but I like driving my car when I have my family with me and the hassle of getting my 15 year-old son in and out of the rear seat in the M4 quickly made me switch to driving my wife’s C63 for family outings.

Cargo space: The C63S has a larger trunk than the M3 or M4. Not by much, but it is larger. Another advantage of the C is that the rear seats can be folded down in a 40/20/40 configuration. On the M3/4, only a 60/40 split was possible.

Audio: The C63S audio system sounds just a bit better to me than the BMW Harmon Kardon upgrade system. Both sound good, but the C is a bit better. On the other hand, the C will not play ALAC format files from a memory card or stick while the BMW would. This is an annoyance as all my music is ripped in ALAC lossless format. In order to play it, I must leave my iPod in the C. On the M4, I could just pop in a memory stick with all of the music and it would play (although the system did get a bit wonky when the stick contained my entire library of hundreds of albums). Another annoyance is that MB gives you only 6 months of Sirrus radio while BMW gives you 12.

Remote connections: mbrace and the equivalent BMW system seem about equal to me. Both allow sending a destination to the car’s nav from a computer of mobile phone as well as locking, unlocking and flashing the lights and sounding the horn. The BMW system also allowed activating the ventilation fan remotely which helped at least a bit when going out to the car after it sat in the direct sun all day at work. I wish the C had this feature. In addition, I believe that BMW included these capabilities for 3 years for free. MB gives you 3 months and then charges a very high price. I won’t be subscribing.

Seating: The seats in the M4 were good, but nothing to write home about. They were reasonably comfortable, but I did experience fatigue after driving more than 3 hours. They gave adequate support for high speed cornering. The Performance Seats in the C are outstanding. They are the most comfortable seats I have ever experienced in a car. The only thing that has come close in the past is the Performance Seats in my wife’s C63, but the new seats are even better. The C63S Performance Seats on the driver’s side have adjustable thigh and shoulder bolsters as well as adjustable seat cushion length in addition to all the usual adjustments like lumbar support, tilt, recline, height, etc. I have driven for nearly 6 hours straight in the C63S and did not experience any fatigue from the seats. These seats also provide excellent support and hold for high speed cornering.

iDrive versus Command: This is definitely a personal preference, but I find the new version of Command with the touch pad easier to use than iDrive. Neither was immediately intuitive, but I have come up the learning curve quite quickly with Command. To their credit, both systems performed very well for voice commands. I also like the screen on the C more than on the M4 as it is larger and appears to be higher resolution. Both nav systems seemed to work equally well. Command is a bit easier when you send a destination from your phone or PC as it asks if you want to set that location as your destination a few moments after starting the car. With the M4, you had to go through several screens to retrieve the destination manually. Of course I find this a bit ironic as I won’t be keeping this capability long given MB’s unreasonably high monthly charge. On the other hand, MB has promised 3 years of free map updates. That is better than the 2015 M4, but BMW has said that for 2016 it will stream map updates presumably for free if you continue to subscribe to BMW’s version of mbrace.

Bluetooth: BMW wins here as its system supported connecting 2 devices simultaneously. For those of us with a work phone and a personal phone, this is a great convenience as you can answer either one hands free without changing any settings. I'd really like to see MB add this feature.

Quality of materials: This has been observed many times and I will agree with the vast majority of these observations. The C63S cabin has much higher quality materials than the M4. Of course, my M4 did not have the leather everywhere option, so this is not a fair comparison. Nonetheless, for the areas where both cars have leather, the C seems to have higher quality.

Ride comfort and noise: My M had the adaptive suspension as is standard on the C63S. Both are capable of being too stiff for bumpy roads and even in their respective softest settings, both are still quite firm. I have never met a car with a suspension too firm for my taste, including my wife’s 2012 C63. Thus for ride comfort, I call it even. By contrast, the M4 had much more wind noise and tire noise at higher speeds. I also found the fake exhaust noise in the M4 very annoying both on principle and because there is no way in the M3/4 to put the engine and transmission in a higher performance mode while still keeping the fake exhaust noise quite. At least on the C63S you can set the performance exhaust to quiet mode regardless of engine mode. Of course this is convenient for phone calls and classical music, but generally I do enjoy hearing the real live bellow of the C63S.

For overall utility, the C63S is a very clear winner. Even if I had owned an M3 instead of an M4, this would still be the result. The C63S interior is higher quality, more comfortable, quieter and has more usable space.

Performance
In addition to being subjective, I have not yet reached 1,000 miles on the C63S and have been attempting to follow the break-in instructions, particularly avoiding reving above 4,500 RPMs. Generally I have followed this restriction, but on a few occasions when passing on a 2 lane road, survival outweighed cautious break-in. Nonetheless, I don’t yet have complete experience with full throttle acceleration, particularly in Race Mode.

Cornering: There is no question that the M4 responded more immediately and precisely to steering inputs. This should come as no surprise as I am comparing truly opposite ends of the spectrum. My M4 was lower than the C, had a carbon fiber roof compared to the extra heavy pano roof on the C, and likely weighed 200+ pounds less than the C. Finally, shortly after getting the M4, I replaced the stock Michelin PSS tires with Yokohama AD08R’s in sizes 275/295. I’ll explain shortly why I made this tire switch, but suffice it to say that these tires also contributed to much sharper cornering than the C with its standard and very nice, but not nearly as performance focused Michelin PSS in sizes 245/265. Steady state cornering is another matter. I have a favorite 270* freeway entrance ramp that has a posted 35 MPH limit. I have never had the nerve to drive it faster than 60 MPH in my C63S, M4 or the GT-R that I owned two years ago (but I have done it at 60 in all 3 cars). While the C63S does lean a bit more than the M4 on this ramp, it seems to hold on just as well as the M4. I suppose if I really pushed to the limits of traction, the M4 would ultimately have higher limits, but that is more than I am willing to do on the street. Regardless, the M3/4 does win this category but not by that much.

As a side note, my wife’s 2012 C63 as delivered was much more of a handful when running through corners at high speed. The rear end almost always wanted to take the lead even with stability control fully engaged. However, after replacing the stock and not very good Conti tires with larger Michelin PSS (245/265), the old C63 has had a real change of character. It is now much less tail happy and seems to have loads more grip and control. That has been a very pleasing improvement. Based on this, I am hopeful that when the C63S needs new tires, I can go up a size to 255/275 and perhaps get something higher performance than the PSS.

Braking: Having never been on a track with any of these cars all I can say is that the standard brakes on all of them seem more than adequate for street driving. I do like the “Hold” feature on both of the C63’s, but this goes under utility rather than performance.

Transmission: This is another category that ultimately goes to the M3/4. The DCT on the M was amazing. It was even better than the DCT on the GT-R. It shifts lightning fast up or down and one gear, two, three or four. Also, being a dual clutch, there is no momentary flat spot in acceleration when upshifting. It is just a seamless rush of power. The M was slightly jerky in city traffic, but not enough to bother me and much better than the GT-R. That said, the transmission in the C63S is a huge step up from the prior model. On my wife’s C63 (even with a transmission tune) it simply will not respond properly to repeated pulls on the downshift paddle. I can pull 3 times fast and get a one gear downshift. In automatic mode and S+ the old C63 shifts itself very fast and just about perfectly such that I have little motivation to shift manually. However, it is annoying when I do want to drop 2 or 3 gears manually for a tight corner. By contrast, this problem appears fully resolved on the new C63S. While driving it home from the dealer on the freeway, I repeatedly downshifted and upshifted 2 and 3 gears manually at 70+ MPH with very fast successive paddle pulls and the car never missed a shift. I would estimate that multi-gear downshifts completed within 1 to 1.5 seconds of the initial paddle pull. Single gear shifts completed in well less than 1 second. The only disconcerting thing about the C63S transmission is that there is that ever so slight hesitation in acceleration on each gear upshift. Previously I would never have noticed it, but the BMW DCT really spoiled me. The C63S definitely shifts more smoothly in city driving than the M4. However, in Sport+ mode the C does lurch a bit when braking to a stop when it decides to shift into first gear. Ultimately, I don’t think the C63S transmission would be a significant handicap on the track. However, in terms of feel and excitement, the M’s DCT is a clear winner.

Engine: Not much to say here. Even when not fully broken-in, the C63S engine is amazing and feels much stronger than the M4’s engine. There is also likely far more head room for tuning on the C63S. The old 6.2, especially with a mild tune, is still likely the best engine of the lot, but the new 4.0TT is damn close and gets amazing MPG for its power. On the M4, I got between 21 and 22 MPG in mixed city and highway driving depending on my level of aggression / fun. So far, with the C63, I am averaging about 21 MPG with a fair amount of fun (mostly under 4,500 RPM). Once I can really open her up, my MPG may diminish for a while (until I get my self-control back).

Fun factor: This one is partly subjective, but only partly. The BMW is well documented to have an issue with its stability control. Specifically, at least for the US, it is calibrated to be much too sensitive, even in its intermediate mode (called MDM). Read through the reviews and you will see countless stories of the stability / traction control light flashing almost continuously under hard acceleration and hard cornering, with the associated and rather jarring automatic intervention. I certainly experienced this. On many occasions, when accelerating from a stop light at ¾ throttle, I would get traction control intervention in first and second gears. BMWs traction / stability control is not subtle either. It feels like the car brakes rather sharply and does not return to power for a noticeable period of time. This was the motivation for the larger and stickier tires I added. The new tires definitely helped, but did not fully resolve this problem. In fact, in some ways they made the problem worse because they increased the car’s capabilities, but the stability control was no less sensitive. Straight line acceleration was definitely better, but not perfect. Cornering was the most frustrating. Eventually, I just turned off the stability control and I was amazed at how much higher the car’s limits were than the stability control would allow. Without stability control, the car would corner very fast and right at the limit would either drift a bit or the back tires would very gently slide just a bit. In either case, it was easy to control and much faster than what the stability control (even in MDM) would allow. This was the final straw for me with the M4. I knew if I kept it I would be tempted to turn off the stability control regularly and this had the potential to be unsafe, or at least less safe than it should have been.

By contrast, the 2012 C63 stability control is a total laggard. As I mentioned, with the stock tires I had the rear end get totally loose and threaten to swap places with the front even with the stability control fully engaged. I have also gotten a fair amount of tire spin at traffic lights. With the new tires, this behavior is much reduced. However, the lesson to me was that at least on the older C63 models, the stability control settings chosen by MB were much more appropriate than those chosen by BMW for the M4.

While I have not fully explored the C63S limits yet (and I have not even put the stability control in Sport Mode yet), it already seems much better than the M4. I have managed to activate the stability control a few times when I threw the car into a corner faster than was reasonable and/or applied power much too early in the corner. However, the stability control intervention was much less than on the M4 and much more gentle. It felt like I was getting less power than requested as opposed to the M4 approach of pulling almost all power for an extended period of time. After break-in I fully expect to explore Sport mode and I anticipate some fun gentle slides that again will be much more satisfying than anything the M4 would have allowed.

Conclusion: As some may have guessed from several of my previous posts, I am much happier with the C63S than I was with the M4. The combination of much greater utility and comfort with the more powerful engine and nearly as good handling, plus the much more pleasant and user friendly stability control make the C63S far more satisfying for me to drive every day. I don’t plan to track this car. When my urge to race overwhelms me, I will pay for a racing class and drive someone else’s expensive car. For me, that is a much better choice than risking trashing my very expensive daily driver, not to mention the cost of tires and brakes that need to be replaced every few track days.

 

Perhaps the best review I've read in a very very long time.

Thanks bro for taking the time to produce this very thorough assessment of both cars. Before someone else say it, I think you mean DCT and not DSC with the M4. Not a big deal though. I really like your review of the Comand versus iDrive. I'm an audiophile and have been wondering about the Bermeister system. It sucks that you can't play your higher quality files in the MB. MP3 files seem to lose so much quality during compression and conversion.

Excellent, excellent review.....!

 

Thanks.


Good catch on DCT, now fixed.


Just to be clear on the audio issue, the C63 will play ALAC files if connected to an iPod. I suspect it is using the iPod's D/A converter and just taking in straight analog audio. This is the set up I'm using as I am too lazy to convert all my ALAC files to MP3 for the car and I don't want the reduced audio quality.

 

Outstanding review. Very thorough and very well-written. Thoroughly appreciated the comparisons to the W204 and F82. Many thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and impressions thus far.

Now that I've had some seat time in the W205, I can say that I definitely agree with your observations regarding how it compares to the M3/M4. Both platforms are clearly great performers but this new W205 platform has some attributes that make it a wonderful and truly exciting car to use on a daily basis.

On a side note, I just got back from driving the AMG GT S around the Circuit of the Americas. I've got plenty of thoughts, photos, and some in-car footage/telemetry data.

I know that the GT S and W205 are two entirely separate/distinct cars but they do share some great tech. The motors are virtually identical, aside from the GT S having dry sump lubrication so that it could be placed lower and further back in the GT S chassis.

In Race and S+, the new M177/M178 motors are absolute animals. The motor and exhaust sounds at full chat are breathtaking. The M156/M159 were screamers but so are the new biturbo motors. Plus, you get all of the wonderful noises associated with biturbo V8s, including all kinds of crackles, gurgles, bangs, and pops during deceleration/downshifting.

Furthermore, the e-controlled differential in the W205/GT S makes the average enthusiast feel like Lewis Hamilton. And the dynamic engine mounts help make the front of the car feel very composed during turn-in.

As you breeze through the break-in process and start to really thrash the W205, you will be very, very impressed by the new platform's limits.

 

Excellent review. Really appreciate the time you took to write it. I read every word.

How do you like the pano roof?

 

Outstanding review - really appreciate you taking the time to write! Yet another review helping me get over the hump of trading my 14 Audi S5 for a new C63S!

 

Good review very informative, detailed and well written. I took my time this morning reading it patiently with my coffee.
You mentioned changing the tire size to 255/275. Do you intend to change wheels? Will the wider size not create rubbing issues on the stock wheels?

 

I am not a fan of sun roofs in general and I would have preferred to skip it on this car as well. However, I wanted the rest of the E1 package and I wanted a car NOW, so I had to take what was available.


That said, the pano roof is the nicest sun roof I have seen. When the weather is cooler, I can definitely envision opening the shade for more light in the car and possibly even opening the roof.

 

Thank you.


While I have not investigated, I suspect that an extra 5mm of tire on either side of the wheel will not cause any major problems. I like the stock E1 wheels very much. Unless they turn out to be much heavier than aftermarket wheels, I hope to keep them. Based on tire specifications on tirerack.com, the wheels are sufficiently wide to handle 255/275 tires. In any case, I don't plan to change tires until the stock tires are worn, so I should have at least 10K miles to go. I expect by that time we will have lots of data on what fits and what works best.

 

One other thing I forgot to mention is the turning circle on the C63S. It is amazingly small. It has by far the smallest turning circle of any car with 19" performance tires I have ever owned. While the M4 was adequate and never a real problem with U-turns and the like, the C has a substantially smaller turning circle and this makes the car very easy to maneuver in tight spaces. This is just one more great utility point.

 

Thanks for the quick reply. My build date is the second decade in Aug so I have plenty of time. I must say I was a bit disappointed with the width of the rear tires and I am waiting to see who will experiment with this.

 

You can have 1 phone connected for a phone and 1 phone connected for music. So technically you can connect two different devices. Was that what you were referring to?

Also....WHERE ARE THE PICTURES?? LOL

 

Photos in this thread: https://mbworld.org/forums/c63-amg-c...ition-1-a.html

On the M4, you can have 2 phones connected as phones. If either one rings, you can answer and talk hands free without having to switch any connection settings. This is great since I never know which of my phones will ring. That is what I want in my C63S.

 

Interesting. That could always be a possible software update.